Mrs. Jerman was in the forefront of the woman suffrage movement in North Carolina. She helped organize the Raleigh Equal Suffrage League and in 1919 was elected president of the North Carolina Equal Suffrage League. At a special 1920 session of the General Assembly, which considered and rejected ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, Mrs. Jerman fought futilely for women's right to vote. In 1921, she led a movement to organize the State Legislative Council to sponsor constructive legislation in the fields of health, education, labor, and corrective institutions; from 1922 to 1933, she served as president of the council. She also led an effort to organize the Raleigh League of Women Voters and served as its president. When the Democratic state convention met in 1922, she served as vice-president of the convention and became the first woman in North Carolina to address a Democratic state convention as a delegate.

In 1920, 1924, and 1928 Mrs. Jerman was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention. As the gubernatorial campaign began in 1928, there was speculation that Mrs. Jerman planned to run for governor; however, she declined to enter the campaign. She was appointed to the Democratic National Committee in the same year, and she actively campaigned for Al Smith in 1928 and Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932.

In 1934, the Roosevelt administration selected Mrs. Jerman for the post of assistant collector of Internal Revenue for North Carolina. This appointment required her resignation from the Democratic National Committee and her relocation in Greensboro. She remained in the federal post until 1939, when she resigned and returned to Raleigh.

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Correction: In 1919 Cornelia Jerman was elected Vice President and Chair of the Legislative Committee of the NC Equal Suffrage League (note: the organization went under several titles--NC Equal Suffrage Assoc or Equal Suffrage Assoc of NC). Gertrude Weil was elected NCESL President in 1919.